The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for comparing two databases of Chinese language items. In particular, the disclosure is applicable to permit comparison of items which are data such as addresses of individuals and/or organizations.
Multiple standards exist for writing Chinese text. Besides traditional Chinese character sets (which remain in widespread use in regions such as Taiwan and Hong Kong), texts in the People's Republic of China are written in Simplified Mandarin characters. Furthermore, Chinese may be transcribed into the Roman alphabet as “Pin Yin characters”, or by other systems, such as the system defined by the ALA-LC romanization tables.
Conversion between the various standards is common. For example, one conventional order management system (SMARTS) requires that billing and shipping addresses are keyed in using Pin Yin characters, and the Pin Yin characters are then converted into double byte Simplified Mandarin characters for storage in the SMARTS database. Note, however, that not all conversions are unambiguous. For example, a single Simplified Mandarin character can correspond (in Pin Yin) to any of several sets of Roman letters. Similarly, a single set of Roman letters (in Pin Yin) may correspond to multiple Simplified Mandarin characters, and these Simplified Mandarin characters will have different meanings.
Because Chinese text in different databases may be stored using different standards, comparing the items in different databases is a difficult process. For example, the US Government has issued a “Denied Parties List” (“DPL”) and transactions with parties on the list are forbidden. This list is only published in English (i.e. a mixture of conventional English words and transliterations into Roman letters of Chinese words) and there is no indication that in the future it will be translated into Simplified Mandarin Characters. For this reason it is difficult to compare the list with the names stored in an order management system such as SMARTS.
The difficulty of comparing the two lists leads to a risk that a supplier of products will erroneously supply products to parties on the DPL, leading to violations of the US Export Regulations. Such violations carry steep penalties which include, but are not limited to, monetary fines on the exporter (a corporation and/or individuals), possible imprisonment or denial of export privileges.